European Diary: Tonight's Dáil vote on the status of the Irish language in the European Union is almost certain to produce an overwhelming majority in favour of having Irish recognised as an official, working language of the EU, writes Denis Staunton.
The three main opposition parties have co-sponsored the private member's motion and the Government has indicated it will support it.
The vote does not mean, however, that the Government will make a formal request to the EU to upgrade Irish from a treaty language to an official language. The Taoiseach told the Fine Gael leader last month that he was not considering such a move.
"We will see if there is a middle road on this. I do not want to give the deputy the impression that we can go the whole way because that is not possible," he said.
Changing the status of the Irish language in the EU would require the unanimous approval of the Council of Ministers, acting on a recommendation from the European Commission.
Mr Seán Ó Neachtáin, the only native Irish speaker in the European Parliament, believes that the Government should ask the Commission to make such a recommendation before the end of Ireland's EU presidency in June.
"I believe it has to be like that because that would be the only avenue that I foresee from the present situation, that there would be a request to the Commission to enhance the position of the Irish language and give it the same status as the other official languages," he said.
The Government points out that, since the late 1990s, citizens can write to the European institutions in Irish and receive a reply in Irish. EU officials seeking promotion to positions where three European languages are required can now count Irish among them, although Irish is not accepted as one of two languages required to start work in the institutions.
Mr Ó Neachtáin can address the European Parliament in Irish - but only if he gives notice of his intention to do so.
"I would prefer to speak in my own first language without having to make arrangements days in advance. This is a right I am being denied," he said.
Advocates of an enhanced status for Irish make much of the decision to designate Maltese an official language of the EU from May 1st. They point out that, with 380,000 speakers, Maltese is spoken by fewer people than Irish - at least according to the most recent Irish census.
Maltese is, however, the mother tongue of 99 per cent of Malta's population and is used throughout its administration.
Opponents of a change in status, who include some Irish officials in the Commission, report gleefully that the Commission has had trouble finding enough Maltese translators and interpreters. They dismiss the proposal to make Irish official as a waste of money - a somewhat risky line of argument for anyone in Brussels.
If the Government does ask the Commission to make a recommendation in favour of Irish, the Commission is likely to make an evaluation of the position of Irish in Ireland, with potentially embarrassing results.
Such an evaluation would assess the extent to which Irish is used throughout the institutions of the State, including the Oireachtas and the judicial system.
It might also consider the commitment successive Irish governments have shown towards protecting Ireland's language and heritage.
Prof Donnchadh Ó Corráin, professor of medieval history at University College Cork, says Ireland conducts a policy of offering "starvation rations for anything connected with Irish culture". He points out that the chairs of old Irish in TCD, UCC and UCD are vacant, as are those of medieval Irish history at Trinity and early Irish history at UCD.
Despite the growth of all-Irish schools, Prof Ó Corráin says that there are no Irish language textbooks available for many subjects. "If the Irish State cared about the Irish language, it would provide textbooks for the students to take their secondary education in Irish. It does not. And I will not ask the Estonians, who speak their own language, or the Lithuanians, or the Slovaks or the Czechs to pay the bill," he said.
Although Mr Ó Neachtáin argues that official status in the EU would give the Irish language a boost, Prof Ó Corráin believes that such a request by the Government would fit all too comfortably into the pattern of official policy towards the language. "It's an empty gesture and we have had too many of them. If we don't look after the Irish language and its culture ourselves - and we seem to have no wish to do so - why should we ask others to do it?" he said.